Domestic soundproofing

Posted by: woody on 19 June 2004

I live in the lower half of a 4 storey victorian house and when the house was converted (in the 50s I think) it wasn't adequately sound-proofed between us and them.

The design of the flats mean our bedroom is below their living room and our second bedroom is below their kitchen.

The problems aren't that they are excessively noisy - they're not - but we can hear the creaking of the floorboards of them walking about in their living room when we're in bed and their washing machine when on spin cycle which appears to hit the resonant frequency of the house!

We're currently working with an architect on some pretty major work including soundproofing and I'd appreciate any advice/suggestions/experiences on this issue. The architect is planning to line our ceiling with 2 layers of 12mm plasterboard sandwiching some kind of acoustic damping material, but I'm not convinced this will stop the impact noise of the washing machine.

-- woody
Posted on: 19 June 2004 by Tony Lockhart
With regards to the creaky floorboards. Could you arrange with them upstairs to have the floorboards fixed down properly? Normally just needs some long woodscrews and a cordless drill. That would drive me nutty!

Tony
Posted on: 19 June 2004 by woody
nutty? yup

-- woody